HHS HealthBeat (December 19, 2008)

Know your numbers

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

High blood pressure and high cholesterol can raise your risk of a heart attack or a stroke. But there’s a lot you can do to keep that from happening.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mary George has been keeping track of the trends. George says around 800,000 people a year die in the United States from heart disease or stroke, although she says the rates have been falling for over 25 years. And she says there are things each of us can do to help keep ourselves out of those numbers:

``Know your numbers. People should know what their blood pressure is, and their cholesterol. We can prevent and control high cholesterol. We can prevent and control high blood pressure.’’ (10 seconds)

Proper diet and physical activity are big steps toward that.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

Last revised: December, 19 2008